Online Content

1. Forrester, Jay W., "System Dynamics as a Foundation for Pre-College Education"

Type:
Document
Date Created:
1990
Collection:
System Dynamic Society Records
Collecting Area:
University Archives
Collection ID:
ua435
Parent Record(s):
23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8, e3ebd4855fa658877b17f518e29a6ac9, and 386b7d5fcd17a644199db727913a7a7a
Thumbnail Path Ss:
/downloads/6m3126641?file=thumbnail
System Modified Dtsi:
2020-01-02T18:44:23Z
Description:
Educational systems are serving poorly. The public response is apt to call for more of what is already not working, rather than seeking fundamentally new and more effective approaches to education. Promising new approaches are now being successfully demonstrated--system dynamics as a framework for giving cohesion and meaning to individual facts, and “learner-directed learning” to harness the creativity, curiosity and energy of young people. Together these reverse two fundamental roadblocks in traditional education. System dynamics reverses the educational sequences where deadening years of learning facts precede the use of those facts. System thinking through computer simulation introduces synthesis (putting it all together) based on facts that even elementary school students already have gleaned from life. Learner-directed learning reverses the process of a teacher’s lecturing facts at resistant students; learners take the leadership in exploration, information gathering, and creating a unity out of their educational experiences with the “teacher” acting as guide and participating learner and as a resource person.